The use of latex as a carpet backing or as part of a carpet backing is well-known in the art. It has been estimated that the amount of foamed latex used for this purpose exceeds 3 billion pounds per year. In order to reduce the cost of producing carpets having a backing that is or includes latex, a filler may be used. A commonly used filler for this purpose is calcium carbonate (CaCO3).
Typically, however, increasing the amount of filler that is used may undermine one or more beneficial properties of the latex, such as the physical integrity of the latex.
Therefore, methods of processing latex that permit the use of a greater amount of filler without substantially affecting the properties of the latex are desired. Also desired are methods of processing latex that improve one or more properties, such as strength, of the latex, regardless of whether a filler is used with the latex.